Mary Tan, Whisker Media
June 9, 2020
Mary Howard, Community Cat Coordinator at McKamey Animal Center
June 16, 2020
You may have seen my blog post about a possible kitten explosion and overpopulation concerns a couple of weeks ago. I believe we will have a substantial uptick in the number of kittens being born in our communities this summer, and I also am convinced that members of the community will reach out and help these kittens—and that it is up to us to provide resources to help everyone take care of the cats and kittens in our towns.
I will be honest that fostering kittens was never my favorite activity. I preferred fostering the older and shyer cats, but as we all know, in animal welfare, we often have to do the things we don’t thrill to doing. In light of this, I thought I would share some of the kitten topics that I personally found the most challenging. Note that these will be covered in depth during the Online Kitten Conference!
My biggest fear when I fostered kittens was the fear of the unknown. “Failure to thrive” and FIP are two big unknowns. I knew many foster homes that were devastated when they lost kitties to these two situations. Dr. Erin Doyle will be sharing her knowledge about FIP during the Sunday sessions of the conference. You can view the entire conference schedule here.
Another presentation I am looking forward to is Kara Ludke’s ringworm protocol. It is wonderful that our perspective regarding ringworm has changed and we are less freaked out about it—but we do still see it in our programs and need to address it.
I also had a chance to see all of the presentations last week as we did our practice sessions and I can tell you that the content is fantastic. Friday night’s entertainment with Arden Moore is not to be missed. Thanks so much to the National Kitten Coalition for coordinating a wonderful line-up of speakers and presentations.
Join the conversation on our Facebook page and let us know what kitten issues concern you the most right now.
